August 15th, 2010
New York Anime Festival
The website for New York Anime Festival 2010 is up and running. This event will be held on October 8 thru 10 at the Jacob Javits Convention Center. This year’s special Guest of Honor is Minori Chihara, who has a special message for attendees. She is a popular voice actress whose most well known role is Yuki Nagato in the Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya.
Interestingly enough, the organizers of NYAF, Reed Exhibitions, decided to merge NYAF with the New York Comic Con 2010. In the past, NYAF and NYCC were two separate events, held on separate days. I could speculate on the reason for the merger: money. Money to rent the Javits facility, money to pay staff, and expected revenue shortfall (day passes go for 30 bucks) if two separate events are held. And truth be told, NYAF 2009 was not as well attended, with plenty of exhibitor space still available. So I can’t fault Reed Exhibitions for merging the two shows, when there may not be enough dollars for people to attend two events.
On the flip side, this means that the Saturday will be EXTREMELY crowded, and tickets for Friday may also sell out. If you do decide to attend, you should buy a ticket (available now) ASAP!!!
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August 15th, 2010
After closing off my wallet entirely for a few months, I wanted to make a purchase or two from a Japanese online company. Unfortunately, I check the dollar-yen rate, see a 85 yen per buck, and I lost my interest.
The problem is that in addition to paying a premium to import the item, I would also need to pay a 3% fee to the credit card company on the entire transaction. And it’s just too rich for my blood. 
Tags: yen rate
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July 5th, 2010
Big Windup! Season 2 (ookiku furikbutte natsu no taikai-hen) ended just about the way I envisioned: with a loss. The first season of Ookifur spends the bulk of its 25 episodes building up the cast of quirky characters on the baseball team. The second season delves further into them, especially their flaws.
While in the game itself, opponents have scouted the team. And the scouting reports are accurate enough to build a strategy around to defeat the team. In other words, every tactic used by the team comes back to haunt it and contribute to the eventual loss. And it’s back to the drawing board again.
Season 2 is not a show that you can dive right into without having watched the first season. But if you’re a fan of the original series, definitely this is not a show to miss!
Final Grade: B+
Tags: anime review, ookifur 2
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July 5th, 2010
AnimeNewsNetwork.com reported that Right Stuf International announced the license of so ra no wo to. They will also release a remastered version of Revolutionary Girl Utena, which will include the original dubbed track from Central Park Media release.
Tags: revolutionary girl utena, Right Stuf, sorano woto
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July 5th, 2010
I just dropped by AnimeNewsNetwork.com, and couldn’t help noticing their news piece on announced licenses by Funimation at the Anime Expo 2010.
I am jumping for joy right now, because: a) some of my fav shows (as mentioned in the title of this post) have been licensed, b) by Funimation, the company with the resources to do a GREAT job on these releases. Nope, I definitely don’t see Funimation cutting corners to save money on these babies!
Additionally, Funimation is reaching back in time, and re-releasing old Geneon titles such as the Tenchi series, Haibane Renmei, Serial Experiment Lain, Trigun.
Wow, a motherlode indeed!
Tags: darker than black, funimation, sekirei, toaru majutsu no index, toaru majutsu no railgun geneon
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May 3rd, 2010
Why am I NOT surprised by the news that Yen Press plans to cease print version of Yen Plus Manga? The fact of the matter is that each issue of Yen Plus is big, heavy, and expensive. My local anime retailer has plenty of unsold back issues in stock. And if you’re living in a small space (i.e. apartment), good luck finding the space to stack all the issues of your Yen Plus manga.
While Yen press is moving its publication online, the question that logically follows is whether Yen Plus will cease publication altogether. My bet is before year end.
Tags: Manga, yen plus
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May 2nd, 2010
AnimeNewsNetwork.com posted a news piece noting that Gainax is hiring an assistant to work on drawing background objects like buildings and vehicles for a 1900 to 1930 Great Britain time period. Whoever ends up with the job will have to do a lot of research to figure out the architectural feel of buildings, and horses/carriages, etc., for that period.
All I can say is “Good Luck!”
Tags: gainax
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May 2nd, 2010
Last month, the CEO of anime dubbing company Bang Zoom wrote an editorial urging fans to support dubbed anime rather than watch fansubbed video. I tend to agree with him on this point. But the problem here is that there just may not be enough of a dubbed-anime-watching-fanbase to support his company. And you need to figure out a way to encourage the downloading generation of consumers to pay for content; that’s definitely a tall order.
Tags: bang zoom, dubbed anime
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April 7th, 2010
Having seen the final, 50th episode, of Cross Game, I have only one word to describe the ending, “Wow.” Yup, the show impressed me in how the plot turned out.
While the show Cross Game is about high school baseball, and trying to reach the Koushien tournament, it’s quite a bit more than that. It’s about life. It’s about coping with tragedy. It’s about moving forward.
The last episode untangles the relationships amongst friends, particularly Kou Kitamura and Aoba Tsukishima. And there is a big, secret memory between the two of them, that is finally revealed during the baseball game. Without giving anything away, all I will say is that it’s brilliant writing that really finalized things between Kou and Aoba. And as a fan of the show, I’m happy and satisfied with the ending.
Final Grade: A
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March 28th, 2010
Just dropped by Amazon.com, and saw that they’re having a big sale on select anime titles, up to 50% off. Sale ends April 19. Here’s some great sales: Heroic Age BD at 30 bucks, Claymore BD at $37.50, Pumpkin Scissors SAVE edition at $15, Rin: Daughters of Mnemosyne at $33, Ghost in the Shell 2.0 BD at $15, Basilisk BD at $35.
The best part about this sale is that they qualify for free shipping if order is over $25. Woot! 
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